The hostage siege that took place in former First Lady Hillary
Clinton's campaign office in Rochester, Hew Hampshire, ended with
the suspect arrested by the police on Friday.
A frame grab from
television news helicopter video footage shows police outside the
Hillary Clinton local campaign headquarters during a hostage
situation at the building in Rochester, New Hampshire, Nov. 30,
2007.
The suspect, identified by police as Leeland Eisenberg,
surrendered to the police by walking out of the storefront office,
holding out his hands and lying on the ground. A CNN live report
showed the suspect was handcuffed by the police and taken to a
police vehicle.
The man, claiming to be carrying an explosive device strapped on
his chest, walked into the simple storefront office shortly before
1600 GMT and took hostage of an unknown number of people working
inside the office.
During the standoff which lasted over five hours, the suspect
first released a woman and her baby, then released the hostages one
after another. With the last hostage released, Eisenberg
surrendered to the police.
According to local media, Eisenberg, who is believed to have
mental and family problems, has demanded to speak to Hillary
Clinton.
Authorities believe that the device Eisenburg had strapped to
his chest was made with road flares, not a bomb.
Local reports said Eisenburg made local headlines in March when
he held a news conference on the steps of Rochester City Hall to
complain about a police policy.
Hillary Clinton (Xinhua
file photo)
Hillary Clinton was in the Washington D.C. area when the
incident occurred. But the confrontation brought her campaign to a
standstill just five weeks before the New Hampshire primary, which
is one of the first tests of the presidential campaign season.
After the incident, Hillary Clinton cancelled her presence at
the fall conference of the Democratic National Committee in Vienna,
Virginia, where other presidential candidates delivered speech one
by one.
(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2007)
